Mexico 2, Croatia 0: El Tri to the knockout round (yet again)

* As intense as you’d expect for an elimination match. Credit Mexico for playing to win when it only needed a tie.

Then again, playing for a tie is the surest way to leave with a loss.

* Mexico missed two chances in the initial 20 minutes (Hector Herrera off the crossbar and Oribe Peralta’s slip) and was on the wrong end of two major officiating errors: The hand balls on Croatia that weren’t called.

Add the two disallowed goals against Cameroon, and El Tri had more than its share of poor luck with the refs in group play.

Yet in both matches, it found a way to win.

*** Goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa didn’t have to stand on his head Monday. Quite the contrary. Ochoa could have sat on his fanny for most of the match, such was the lack of quality play in the box from Croatia.

*** El Tri has now qualified for the knockout rounds in six consecutive World Cups.

As we’ve noted, it’s hard to believe this is the same team that struggled through qualifying.

It’s also hard to believe this is the same team that lost to Bosnia & Herzegovina in Chicago early this month.

And yet … Mexico has not reached the quaterfinals since ’86, when it was playing on home soil.

*** My stars of the game:

1. Javier Hernandez: Super-sub changed the game.

2. Hector Herrera: Total. Stud.

3. Rafael Marquez: Not his best game, but his header in the 72nd minute was the moment.

*** Looking ahead …

Mexico will play The Netherlands on Sunday in the round of 16 (9 a.m.) in what, on paper, stacks up as a collision of offense vs. defense.

The Oranje scored 10 goals in group play and will have Robin van Persie back — he missed the victory over Chile (discipline) — to team with the irrepressible Arjen Robben.

Mexico allowed one goal in three matches and possesses the World Cup’s hottest keeper.

Which means, in this endlessly unpredictable tournament, that the outcome will hinge on Mexico’s attack against The Netherlands’ back line.